Urban Decay Is Discontinuing Its Beloved Naked Smoky Palette

For someone who loves makeup, I personally suck at using it. I buy, try three shades of, then store hordes of makeup palettes in the top drawer of my dresser, all to be looked at and rarely swept across my face again. There's one exception to that pile of eyeshadow sets, bronzing trios, and color-corrector cases gathering dust, though, and that's my Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette. Put it in my hand and suddenly I go from passive collector to full-on beauty vlogger.

The point is, I'm obsessed with this palette. Sure, I'm obsessed with all of Urban Decay's Naked palettes. I know I don't have to explain why to you because if you clicked this, you love Urban Decay's Naked palettes. The shades are pigmented; they're easy to blend; the brush that comes with isn't a flimsy throwaway and it actually gives good results; there's rarely a shade in the bunch that goes unwanted; the list honestly goes on. But my affection for Naked Smoky is deeper than the rest. I actually use this palette. All the g-d time.

Where a lot of palettes now chase trends (looking at you Naked Heat), the Smoky's got the perfect mix of matte and metallic silver, black, and brown, plus one beautiful shimmery plum. My go-to for nights out is as follows: Sweep "Thirteen" all over my lid to cancel out redness and follow with "Dirtysweet" on top for shimmer. "Password" goes in my crease, then a mix of "Armor" (the best gunmetal silver out there) and "Dagger" from the center out, and finally my favorite, "Smolder" (the plum), just on the outside and smudged into my lower lash line. The whole thing is topped off with a heavy dose of Better Than Sex mascara.

I've worn this combo to all my biggest life events—graduation night, my moving-to-NYC party, my best friend's bachelorette. It brings out the blue in my eyes in a way that (I personally think) make them even more captivating. They create a true dark smoky eye. So when news broke this week that Urban Decay is discontinuing my precious, it cut deep.

To know why such misfortune would be brought upon us, I reached out to the brand. I didn't get a very specific answer, but their response does bode well that a better alternative is possibly on the horizon. Here's the statement reps gave me:

"At Urban Decay, we are never 'done'; this means we always look for
ways to make our products better. Every time we create a new product,
we come at it with a fresh perspective and make it technologically
innovative and relevant for now. Unfortunately, this sometimes means
discontinuing products people love, in order to launch new products we
think you’ll love even more!"

There is, however, a shade-of-Armor lining. As part of the palette's mass liquidation, UD has slashed the price of it by 50 percent everywhere. Ulta, Sephora, urbandecay.com—at all of them, the palette is only $27, starting this week until the Naked Smoky's gone for good. Luckily I've already got two: one I keep in my drawer and the other that stays in my travel bag. But for the rest of you who haven't gotten in on its magic or just want a cheap score, now's your last chance. I highly recommend it.